Luminous pendant



D. HOLE.

LUMINOUS EENDANT. APPLICATION nuzo OCT. 21, 1919;

Patented Oct. '25, 1921.

DEAN HOLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

LUMINOUS PENDANT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed Gctober 27, 1919. Serial No. 333,470.

To all w 710m it may concern Be it known that I, DEAN Horas, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Luminous Pendants; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to an improved luminous pendant and particularly a pendant of that character adapted to indicate the location of the pull strand or chain for operating an electric switch and for other analogous purposes, and the invention con sists in the combination and arrangement of the parts shown in the drawings and described in the specification, and is pointed out in the appended claims.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide a pendant of this character which is made in part of glass, with a receptacle to receive a luminous substance, and in part of metal, so arranged that the metal part may be easily attached to and detached from the glass or transparent part when the luminous substance cavity in the glass portion is to be charged with a luminous substance or the luminous substance is to be replaced by a fresh body of luminous substance, and to also provide the metal part or pendant with means whereby it may be readily attached to the so-called ball chain for pull switches, that is to say, made up of a series of balls connected by links.

Other objects of the invention are to provide an exceedingly simple, non-breakable, and economical pendant for the purpose set forth.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a chain and pendant embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section thereof.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the pendant with the chain removed.

A pendant embodying my invention embraces a glass or other transparent body, preferably spherical, which is recessed to provide a cavity to hold a substantial quantity of luminous material, such as phosphorus, with walls made of such thickness as to avoid. breakage and a cap made of a metal possessing some resiliency which is shaped to generally correspond with the exterior configuration of the transparent body and is constructed so that the cap may be readily applied to and detached from the body. The cap is also constructed to permit the ball of a so-called ball chain, or other equivalent enlargement of a pull strand for electric switch actuatorsto be passed through the cap and thus afford a reliable connection between the pendant and the chain or strand.

In. the particular embodiment of the invention disclosed in the drawings 10 designates, as a whole the pull strand which has the form of a ball chain and 11 designates as a whole the pendant. 12 designates the body of the pendant which, as herein shown, has the general form of a glass sphere, and 13 designates the metal cap which is applied over a cavity'12 formed in the transparent body to receive the luminous body 15 which is of such character as to show in the dark and to enable a person entering a darkened room having a gas or electric fixture equipped with the pendant to direct himself to the position of the fixture to open the switch of an electric fixture or the valve of a gas fixture. Said cavity 12 can be made of substantial dimensions to contain a relatively large body of the luminous material, and said luminous material. may be" held in said cavity by any suitable means, as a thin layer of wax l6 thereover. Other modes of applying the luminous material to the in terior of the transparent portion of the pendant can be employed.

The cap 13 is of general convex contour on its upper surface, it being provided centrally with a depression 13, and the metal of the cap at said depressed portion 13 is provided with a hole 14: to receive a chain or strand and is radially cut or slitted at 18 to form around said central opening a series of spring fingers so related to each other that the terminal ball of the chain or strand or other analogous enlargement thereof may be forced downwardly through said opening, which is normally smaller than the ball or equivalent enlargement, so that after the ball or enlargement has been forced past the fingers, afforded by said radial slits 18, said fingers spring backwardly into place and thus restrict the opening to prevent the ball or other enlargement from being pulled away from the cap,

Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

- The means herein shown for detachably fixing the cap to the transparent body 12 of the ball, and providing the rim of the cap with an inturned flange 20 which is slitted as shown at 17 so as to provide numerous fingers at'the clutching flanged edge of the cap to permit said fingers to yield to allow the cap to be forced downwardly over the transparent body to engage said groove. It will be understood that thecap 13 may be made of very thin material so that the fingers produced by slitting the margin of the cap conform readily to the surface of the transparent body above the groove 19 and allows the cap to be readily sprung in place and also to be detached from the transparent body when desired, as for the purpose of replacing the body of luminous material. 1

While the transparent body of the pendant is shown as having the form of a sphere it may take other forms. The spherical form however, is preferred because giving large angular range for the passage of the rays therethrough from the luminous material 15, and because also such form, especially with a glass body having reasonably thick walls surrounding its cavity, is best adapted to resist shocks which would otherwise tend to break it. It will be furthermoreobserved that by forcing the cap 13 firmly in place the fingers produced by the radialslits 18 will yield sufliciently to permit theterminal ball of the chain 10 to pass readily through the enlarged opening in the cap thus produced. and likewise to pull the chain outwardly away from the cap when it is desirable to attach the chain to or detach it from the cap. The cap may be removed from the transparent body either before or after the chain or strand is detached from the cap. The said fingers formed by and between the slits 17 and 18 of the margins of the thin resilient caps produce self flexing fingers, inasmuch as the distortion of the cap necessary to apply and remove the cap and. to attachand detach the ball chain is within the fingers themselves.

I claim as my invention,-

1. A luminous pendant comprising a hollow transparent body to receive luminous substance and a thin resilient cap formed to have a self flexing margin fitted over'said cavity and detachably connected at its man.

gin to said body.

2. Aluminous pendant comprising a'hollow transparent body to receive luminous substance and a thin resilient cap fitted over said cavity and detachably connected by the selfflexion of the margin to said body and provided with a central self flexing margin bounding an opening through which a ball or like enlargement of a strand is adapted to pass.

A luminous pendant comprising a hollow transparent body to receive luminous substance and a member fitted to said body and provided with a chain receiving opening and around said opening with converging resilient fingers.

at. A luminous pendant comprising a transparent hollow body to receive a luminous substance and provided with an annular exterior groove and thin, resilient metal cap having a yielding margin to be detachably snapped into and out of enga ement with said groove and provided centrally with yielding means for receiving and attaching a chain or strand thereto.

5. A luminous pendant COIUPliSilig a transparenthollow body to receive a luminous substance and provided with an annular exterior groove and a metal cap provided with a hooked margin to engage said groove and slitted at said hooked margin, and means to attach a strand to said cap.

6. A luminous pendantcomprising a transparent hollow body to receive a luminous substance and provided with an annular exterior groove and a metal cap having a yieldable marginal portion to be detachably snappedinto and out of engagement with said groove, said cap being provided with a central opening and therearound with a plurality of radial spring fingers which, upon .fiexion, enlarges the opening for the passage of an enlargement of a strand or chain tlierethrough. 1

7.11 luminous pendant comprising a transparent body having a cavity to receive a luminous substance and provided with'an external undercut groove and'a metal cap formed of thin resilient metal with an inturned self flexing flange to engage and to be removably seated in said groove and'provided centrally with an opening and with slits radiating from said opening to form- In testimony that I claim the foregoingas my invention 1 aifix my signature this 25th day of October A. D. 1919.

beau HOLE. 

